Ah sorry, it was hard to understand what types of transactions you were talking about. Yes, the reality is that when you try to live in a foreign country and do non-touristy "resident" things like buy things online or pay bills, but when you don't actually have a work visa that allows you to open a local bank account -- the systems aren't built for that. And local merchants really do put themselves at the risk of scams -- even with debit cards, transactions can be reversed by banks (stolen debit cards are a thing), and then the merchant is out of merchandise and money. It sucks, and you just wind up having to rely on a friend or family member to do your online purchases. It's such a small group of people, that companies don't do much to support those edge cases.

I still don't understand why you couldn't wire money though. That's what wiring money internationally is for. If timing with the hospital is an issue, you just wire yourself or your family member in advance -- that's usually more common than attempting to a the hospital directly. (And even if you do have to wire the hospital directly, you can provide proof of the fact that the wire was initiated from your bank.) The only problem I can think of with wiring money is the fact that the money is illegal or someone is trying to evade taxes or something. If the money is perfectly legal, then what is the problem?